Losing half a pound everyday

jyoti_0
jyoti_0 Posts: 90 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
11 day of counting my calories and the scales won't budge, even though there was huge calorie deficit. I started thinking of buying a new scale!
Then 3 days ago, it so happened that I consumed only as many calories as needed (1,200).
Next day, the scales moved!
Continued for 3 days, and now I'm losing half a pound every day.
Just thought to share it for those who are struggling with weight loss.
Perhaps, it has more to do how much calories we consume than how much is the calrie deficit.
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Replies

  • happysquidmuffin
    happysquidmuffin Posts: 651 Member
    Weight loss and fat loss aren't the same. You're still very new in this journey. Welcome to the annoying world of daily scale fluctuations! (Someone here have a link to that great article I read a few weeks ago??) Just stick to your goals (hopefully they are realistic and reasonable), keep logging, and don't be discouraged by days your weight goes up. Your trend over time (months... multiple months...) will be the best gauge for how much you are actually losing per week.
  • dragon_girl26
    dragon_girl26 Posts: 2,187 Member
    edited November 2022
    Well, keep in mind that when you first start your weight loss plan, it can take up to 4 weeks sometimes to see progress on the scale. It's not typically a fast process. The pounds per week is an average, not a guarantee that you will lose every week like clockwork. It's very rare for weight loss to actually happen weekly.

    Also, if you saw a loss only 3 days after changing your calorie amount to 1200, it's extremely unlikely that's what caused the drop. It takes more than three days for changes to happen. As others have stated, more than likely you had a 'woosh' resulting from back when you first started a few weeks ago.
  • jyoti_0
    jyoti_0 Posts: 90 Member
    Thank you all for your replies. It is a big morale booster. My weight loss is now steady after initial obstacles. One thing is sure, by logging my food, I realized how unhealthy (read oily, fried) food I had been eating, and worrying about weight increase and thinking, "oh, but I hardly eat two flatbreads in a day!" Two flatbreads soaked in unhealthy oil, vegetable curry again, with unhealthy layer of oil on the top. Now I can't even think of eating that type of food!
    I still have to lose water weight that accumulates due to my food allergy. If someone has any tips for that, I would be grateful to know that.
  • jyoti_0
    jyoti_0 Posts: 90 Member
    @AnnPT77 thanks for that article about scales fluctuations! Felt like it was written about me :)
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,649 Member
    @jyoti_0
    How lovely to see you still here and having success after the initial frustration!

    So many people give up after a few days. It takes time for your body to respond to change, but we’re so conditioned to “fast results”.

    It sounds like you’re doing this thoughtfully and mindfully.

    I predict much success for you!
  • jyoti_0
    jyoti_0 Posts: 90 Member
    @springlering62 Thank you for your kind and encouraging words! I was really on the verge of quitting when I thought, I have nothing to lose but everything to gain. So, I decided to stick to the plan and it paid very soon :)
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 921 Member
    It is and it isn't.

    The deficit is important. You need to expend more calories than you consume to lose weight/fat. That's a calorie deficit.

    However, you *also* need to fuel your body properly - so that it can do all the things it needs to. So, those with a very high calorie deficit are likely to run into numerous amounts of problems that can (negatively) impact their weight loss.

    I'd also wager that you can eat more than 1200 and still lose weight.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,585 Member
    jyoti_0 wrote: »
    Thank you all for your replies. It is a big morale booster. My weight loss is now steady after initial obstacles. One thing is sure, by logging my food, I realized how unhealthy (read oily, fried) food I had been eating, and worrying about weight increase and thinking, "oh, but I hardly eat two flatbreads in a day!" Two flatbreads soaked in unhealthy oil, vegetable curry again, with unhealthy layer of oil on the top. Now I can't even think of eating that type of food!
    I still have to lose water weight that accumulates due to my food allergy. If someone has any tips for that, I would be grateful to know that.

    If there are things you can do to avoid triggering your allergies (i.e., avoid things you're allergic to) or treat your allergies (desensitization treatments, medications), that may help to reduce the water weight from allergies.

    Generally, though, we don't want to try to make our bodies stop fluctuating water weight. Our bodies know what they're doing! Fluctuating water retention is part of how a healthy body stays healthy. In a case like allergies or non-life-threatening injury or illness, water retention increases because of inflammation. That type of inflammation is about how our bodies get through the injury/illness, and recover. We want that recovery to happen, right?

    (That kind of acute/temporary inflammation is different from "systemic inflammation" or "chronic inflammation" that can be a bad thing, i.e. inflammation that stays around all the time because of excess total stress on our physical systems.)

    If you're retaining so much water that it creates a health problem (as would be the case with, say, some heart/circulation problems), then you should see your doctor. If it's less than that, part of allergies that are somewhat routine (not life threatening) or minor illness/injury, the best idea is to live with it, and know that that weight will drop off when the mini-"crisis" has passed.

    I understand that if someone has bigger water weight fluctuations than average, that can be very frustrating. That water weight will mask fat loss on the scale for surprisingly long times. The thing is, if we stay with a tested and true calorie deficit, eventually the fat loss will outpace the water retention, and will show up in the long term trend of body weight. "Long term trend" = what happens over many weeks and beyond, averaged out.

    If you have water retention that creates or is caused by severe health problems, see your doctor. If you have normal causes of water fluctuations that feel frustrating, learn to understand and live with them. Water weight isn't fat, and it's fat gain/loss we really care about, right?

    Best wishes!


  • jyoti_0
    jyoti_0 Posts: 90 Member
    @westrich20940
    Thanks for sharing about calories deficit. My weight didn't go down until I started eating more fiber and less calories in my meals.
    Also, I observed that eating dinner at least 2-3 hours before I go to sleep is excellent for weight loss. It turns into unintentional intermittent fasting :)

    @AnnPT77
    Thanks for the ideas about allergies and water retention. Logging in my food had made me aware, what allergens are creeping in my food. Now that I'm consciously tracking my food, the water retention seems to be retreating too. I m determined to listen to my stomach instead of my taste buds, which helps keeping away from allergens.
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,649 Member
    jyoti_0 wrote: »
    Also, I observed that eating dinner at least 2-3 hours before I go to sleep is excellent for weight loss. It turns into unintentional intermittent fasting :)

    I’ve observed that if I eat a heavy snack or dessert or even a late dinner say, less than an hour before going to bed, I have anxious dreams, crazy night sweats, more joint pain (hips ache like fire at night sometimes), more tossing and turning, and am more likely to get up wide awake and stay up at 3 am.

    YMMV, but I try to stay mindful. It’s hard, though. I do like a dessert after dinner, although they’re generally on the light side. But if I’m going to get in trouble, it’s usually that last hour before bed when I start gobbling anything that sounds remotely tasty.
  • beanfacekilla
    beanfacekilla Posts: 69 Member
    Weigh in once a week, not daily. If you weigh yourself daily, it can be discouraging.

    If you eat too few calories, you may eventually implode and eat like crazy.

    Think of it like this: dieting to lose weight fast isn't the point. Changing your lifestyle is the point. If we diet and lose the weight, what happens then when the diet is over? If we go back to what we did before, I think you know what the end result will be.

    Choose a healthy way of eating that you can sustain long term.

    So, if you eat 1200 calories, meet your goal, what is the next step? What will your diet be then?

    It'll take time to lose the weight. Along the way you should try and learn a thing or two about your diet and intake so you can keep the weight off and be healthier for the foreseeable future.

    IMO you're approaching this with a flawed mindset. Losing the weight is just the beginning. Changing your lifestyle so you don't yo-yo the weight on and off is what I think is fundamentally important.

    FYI: I lost over 60 lbs in 2017, I was 230 at one point, got down to 160. I gained back 30 lbs falling back into old habits. Now I'm once again back on the wagon. 185 now. I wish I had not strayed from healthy habits. I lost my way. I have a lot of work to do. This is the last time lol.

    If I had taken my own advice I wouldn't be here. Unfortunately, I like pizza and junk food. Along the way I discovered when I eat bad my appetite is never satisfied. When I eat healthy and clean I have a much easier time staying within the bounds of a healthy intake. The right foods really make me feel full and my huge appetite has subsided.

  • jyoti_0
    jyoti_0 Posts: 90 Member
    @beanfacekilla I agree with your point, that healthy lifestyle/ eating is the main things, weight loss is a side benefit of that. In the last two months, I have tried to go back to my healthy eating habits, which is more important to me since I struggle with food allergies. The best advice I got was from a naturopath, about eating healthy. She told me to eat:
    1) Fruits-from 4 am to 11.30 am.
    2) from 11.30 am to 4 pm- lunch, normal food.
    3) from 4 pm to 6 pm- dinner, of protein.
    Gluten and dairy were prohibited.
    This, she told me, was based on the natural digestion capacity of our bodies.
    Mornings are sluggish phase so give your digestion system "pre-digested" food like fruits and vegetables.
    Afternoons are peak, so eat a normal lunch.
    And nights are for "repairing" all our systems so give the "building blocks" aka protein to the digestion system.
    I did this and all the water retention from allergies disappeared . I didn't count calories and still, I lost more than 20 pounds in a couple of months.
    As for the "pizza problem", simply add salad to go with it. I, as a rule, eat one morsel of salad with one morsel of pizza or with any other junk food. That balances my taste and health.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,296 Member
    Whatever works, works.... but faster not always better, not if it impacts long term adherence.

    Long term adherence is THE golden grail.


    Check out weight trend apps and web sites they do help you see your reasonable progress towards reasonable and appropriate goals

    Use your critical thinking and research skills :wink: How are vegetables pre digested?

    What is the largest reason for weight fluctuations?

    Hint: undigested and partially digested food and water retention used by the body to balance electrolytes or in response to stress, ormedication and also muscle and liver glycogen if playing with carbs or large deficits... more often than not fast one time weight changes are caused by these not by changes to the underlying fat stores

    However continuing 0.5lb changes = 3.5lbs per week would only be appropriate if you're currently in the 350lb range.. so try to temper your enthusiasm if you're not!

    Best of luck. There's some great links above.
  • jyoti_0
    jyoti_0 Posts: 90 Member
    @PAV8888 I agree, different things work for different people. I don't know why my weight loss has been what it has been (no progress for a month, then suddenly started losing half a pound every day :/ )
    I don't want to lose too much weight too soon! That would indicate that I'm doing something wrong. Don't want that.
    What I do like is, I have got a grip on my eating habits. Logging every thing had made me aware how wrong I was in my food choices. And how inconsistent I was in eating- not eating for many hours, then suddenly eating too much at once. Not eating vegetables or fruits, then eating only vegetables and fruits. Half of the time I was sick due to these bad eating habits.
    Nowadays, everything is as it should be. Breakfast, lunch, dinner at proper times, and I eat proper, balanced meals.
    Also, I so much appreciate everybody's help! So much encouragement, kindness, and compassion! That makes visiting MFP a pleasing activity for me. Thank you, and I thank everyone for chipping in with their invaluable advices.
    (btw, by "pre digested food", that naturopath meant food that is light in digesting, nothing scientific :) )

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